As we continue nonstop critical coronavirus coverage, the CDT needs your help

At the beginning of last month, the Centre Daily Times newsroom was drastically different, and not only because there were humans in it, rather than journalists scattered around the county in front of laptops. We were talking a lot about Penn State basketball and the long-awaited excitement of March Madness, and planning around spring break, when there’s usually a lull in news.

I don’t have to tell you what happened next in our communities, our commonwealth and our country as the new coronavirus took hold. But I can offer insight into what happened at the CDT: We started working nonstop to deliver readers urgent developments about COVID-19 and its immediate effects on Centre County.

This is why we all got into this business — to serve the public when you need us most and to connect our communities at times of crisis. Along with in-depth stories such as those examining the state of testing in our area and economic impacts of the statewide shutdown, we’ve provided utility information about restaurants that remain open, nonprofits in dire need of help and companies that are hiring. We asked for your help in compiling some of those guides, and we’re grateful for the responses, as well as your news tips that point us to areas to investigate.

At a time when local news mattered the most, even before our county had its first confirmed COVID-19 case, we removed the paywall on all coronavirus content so that all community members could access vital reporting. That was not a business decision; it was the right thing to do.

And now we need your support.

After weeks of providing all of our coronavirus coverage for free, we simply cannot afford to do that anymore. Starting this week, some of that content will return to a metered paywall system that limits the number of stories non-subscribers can read. Our story compiling the top COVID-19 news of the day and the daily update on local and regional cases will remain accessible to all, along with other content that affects readers’ health and safety.

We rely on subscribers to continue our critical reporting. That has always been true, but exponentially more so today when many of our advertisers face uncertainty and financial strain. News organizations that rely on advertising revenue have a new, monumental challenge, and in the past weeks we’ve seen many across the country announce layoffs and other measures that couldn’t come at a worse time. We grieve with those journalists and those communities, knowing how significant this pandemic story is today, tomorrow and for weeks and months to come.

Over these past weeks, we’ve reached more readers than ever before, with record traffic to our website. If you’ve been reading our work for free, I hope you’ve found value in our constant updates on local and state news, as well as enterprise reporting on housing and testing issues, along with feature stories on how people are coming together to navigate these challenging times. If so, please consider a digital subscription to continue to get unlimited access to essential local content.

Of course, the CDT is one of countless businesses in our region in need of help. We’re all in this together, and I believe we’ll get through it together. If you don’t have the financial means to subscribe now, please know that we’ll continue to provide access to information you and your families need.

To our loyal subscribers and new readers: Thank you for your support, and thank you to so many who have reached out about the importance of local news at this time. We agree, and with your support, we will be here as our community grapples with, and recovers from, this pandemic.